The 27th Amendment just delays pay raises. The appointment amendment sounds good, but as proposed would be unworkable today. The 435 seats is something that was passed by Congress, it’s not set in the Constitution.

So here’s This Guy, back from Iraq, hiding out in a third-rate Law school where he presumably cannot get on the school’s health care program because the Republicans wouldn’t expand Medicaid, and having voted for a Governor who had to flee office amid a torrid phone sex scandal. He’s sitting in the dark (probably in his mom’s houses basement) at his computer watching YouTube and he’s apparently thinking to himself, “I really want to vote for a religious lunatic and alleged pedophile, but I’m afraid everybody will know.”

Stupidity as egregious as this should be fatal, or at least render people sterile. Fucking Community College indeed. I doubt this bozo could be trusted to dig a fucking latrine. Probably why they put him in the MPs.

@5.
“When I came back from Iraq I had been in an environment where leaders made decisions based on what was best for the people under them. They were able to put political differences aside,” Ransom said. “I support the governor in everything he’s done up to this point, but this is a time where he needs to stand up and make a decision that will benefit the people under him instead of playing political football with our insurance policies.”

Summary: “I support the republicans when they make policies that hurt those undeserving Others, but this policy hurts me. This is unfair! ” Typical republican. Starts to care when it effects them personally.

This is amusing.
“But for some erstwhile Republican voters, the experience of spending the Christmas season frantically trying to navigate state and local bureaucracies — because GOP lawmakers pared back their tax deductions to give giant breaks to the superrich, while leaving them virtually no time to adjust — will surely loom larger.
These people aren’t used to feeling powerless. And that’s very dangerous for those in power.”http://nymag.com/daily/intelli.....fused.html
Honestly, what did they expect? It’s not like they were not warned, repeatedly.

These are the same people who buy a vanilla ice cream cone, take several licks off of it, then try to return it because they were really thinking they wanted strawberry, then get violently irate when the clerk laughs in their face and tells them to go fuck themselves.

A prank call resulted in Wichita, Kansas police killing a man at his home. While the prankster is primarily responsible for the shooting, police also are to blame, for shooting the man merely because “he moved his hands to his waistline.”

Roger Rabbit Commentary: A waistline is not a weapon, and this is not a good enough reason to extinguish a human life, much less an innocent life. Washington, like other states, needs to tighten the criteria by which police may kill, and provide consequences for itchy-trigger-finger cops who violate the law, their training, and departmental policies. This week an initiative was submitted to the secretary of state to do just that. Next year, it will be up to us to vote for it. The epidemic of unjustified police violence must stop. When law-abiding citizens are more afraid of police than criminals, you’ve got a problem.

I hope Boob has the decency to refrain from posting a snarky celebratory comment about the death of Eric Garner’s daughter. He seems to dislike activists unless they’re defending Confederate monuments or repressive regimes.

@4 @5 Unfortunately, this law student likely will be a lawyer someday. As I’ve said before, I used to believe you had to be smart to become a lawyer, but after 40-plus years in the legal profession, I know better. Yes, there are some very smart (and very good) lawyers. But I’ve met too many stupid ones to believe anymore that’s an admission criterion.

David A. Clarke, Jr.
✔
@SheriffClarke
Lib media did a drive-by hit job on me today with a FAKE NEWS STORY that I am under investigation by the FBI. It’s a LIE. Last MAY the US Atty’s office found NO EVIDENCE of wrongdoing for doing police work. Lying Lib media took a story from LAST MAY & reports this today as new.

9:29 PM – Dec 29, 2017

If you go to the tweet itself, it’s got the FBI’s letter to Clarke embedded.

When all you’ve got is a hammer, Steve, everything looks like a nail, eh?

Had you a little more objectively read what I wrote, you might have inferred that Garner’s daughter’s death from heart disease might have been related in some familial way to pudgy papa Garner’s pre-existing conditions,:

So says the racist whose stock in trade before turning to treason was celebrating the deaths of blacks, including the needless killing of Eric Garner. And now he revels in the death of Garner’s daughter.

Emergency workers arrive after officers call 911, check his pulse and make sure he’s breathing before placing him on the stretcher.

“Sir, it’s EMS. We’re here to help you. We’re getting the stretcher, all right?” one worker says to Garner when they arrive at 3:36 p.m.

He does not answer.

Later, when a bystander asks why they aren’t trying to resuscitate him, an officer says it’s because Garner is breathing. Hospital records, also filed in the documents, say Garner went into cardiac arrest on the stretcher. At the emergency room, doctors again performed CPR. By 4:15, he had no pulse, and he was declared dead at 4:34 p.m.

“The EMTS did not conduct the appropriate examination” of Garner and “failed to provide him with the necessary life-saving procedures,” according to the court documents.

In addition to the $5.9M from the City, the Garner family received $1M from the Richmond University Medical Center, which dispatched the EMTs.

3. When you watch the video, the police officer uses the chokehold restraint only in the takedown, and once Garner’s horizontal, he immediately stops. It’s well before the “I can’t breathe.” statements are made.

“The Republican Party can’t live on the dollars of libertarian billionaires and the votes of downwardly mobile white reactionaries alone. Without the support of culturally moderate, but fiscally self-interested suburban homeowners, the GOP’s congressional majorities would cease to exist. Highly educated, highly affluent blue-state suburbs put the Speaker’s gavel in Paul Ryan’s hand — and he then used it to pare back one of their favorite tax deductions.”

Roger Rabbit Commentary: Ryan isn’t a stupid man, or a political naif. He merely acts like one, because like other Republicans, he’s chained to the ideology of a dead novelist who created fantasy worlds in her fiction. This ideological slavery is what deprives Republicans like Ryan of any ability to think critically or solve real-world problems. It’s a lot like asylum inmates running the country. You get what you vote for.

Note: Washington does not allow you to prepay your 2018 property taxes in 2017, and King County will not accept payments from homeowners who attempt to do so.

Re 1: Doesn’t change the fact that it was a dead issue to the FBI in May. That much was known and yet ‘froggy @ 3 posted as if it was still an active FBI investigation.

Re 2,3,4: My response to ‘froggy @ 3 pertained to his comment that Clarke is, not was, in “hot water” with the FBI. Whether or not there is any merit to a civil suit is irrelevant to the FBI’s conclusion.

By your rationale in #4, I could state that #CrookedHillary wasn’t actually exonerated by Comey, couldn’t I?

“Our decision is not meant to affirm the wisdom or propriety of what occurred. It only reflects our belief that it would be difficult or impossible to prove a violation of the only federal statute available to us … beyond a reasonable doubt.”

And then there are the further facts that (a) the investigations of Clarke’s other abuses of authority aren’t over, (b) Clarke is no longer sheriff, and (c) Clarke was denied a job in the Trump administration. His reputation in tatters, Clarke has been reduced to working for a dark-money PAC that supports pussygrabbers in high public offices.

You said it was old news. It is, in fact, not old news. The new information being the fact that a Milwaukee County agency’s investigation determined the Clarke had, in fact, overstepped the bounds his authority. That’s not a “nothing burger.” It would, for example, be reasonable grounds for the Senate to refuse to confirm him for any appointment in the Executive branch.

As for this:

By your rationale in #4, I could state that #CrookedHillary wasn’t actually exonerated by Comey, couldn’t I?

No, you couldn’t. According to Director Comey’s testimony before Congress, career prosecutors at the DoJ unanimously agreed that there was no reasonable legal basis to support a criminal prosecution. That’s very different from a US Attorney saying that they don’t think they can get a conviction based on the available evidence.

Clearly, these subtle distinctions elude you, hence the name you’ve been given.

I hate to leave Doctor Dumbfuck unsupervised, but you’ll be Puddy-free for several more hours, and yesterday was the last trading day of the year, so I need to go count my 2017 unearned income. There’s a lot of it. Sure glad I don’t have to work for a living. That sucks.

@34 Only a dumbfuck thinks misusing law enforcement authority to bully a stranger on a plane is okay as long as you’re not prosecuted for it. He probably cheered when babies died in Clarke’s jail, too.

@29 if ever in NYC and you are a smoker you can get cheaper cigarettes on 14th Street at either the corner of 6th Avenue or 7th Avenue, two head shops (that I know of) that are run by Middle Easterners, that sell loose cigarettes as well as smuggled duty free packs from Virginia. Storefront Shops. Police don’t bother with them – must be paying off someone.

I’ll ask the HA moderators – OK, the one who edits me – to give me a little leeway here.

This is NPR’s The Week In Review segment on their afternoon All Things Considered show, yesterday. Ari Shapiro, interviewer

SHAPIRO: In our last minute, what do you each think was one overlooked political story of the year – Matt?

YGLESIAS: I think the sort of success of the American military campaign against ISIS has gotten remarkably little attention if you think about how alarmed people were a few years ago and how much it’s really faded.

SHAPIRO: And Rachael?

LARIMORE: I’d like to go back to – there were – there have been a couple stories that came out in the past year that showed how the Obama administration kind of over – sugarcoated some things with Iran and kind of maybe knocked – there was the Politico story about…

SHAPIRO: About Hezbollah, yeah.

LARIMORE: About shutting down a – the Hezbollah investigation that I think would have put the Iran deal in a new light.

In the 30 seconds prior to the above exchange, there were some additional complimentary words about Trump’s first year from an unlikely source.

In a few years we’ll be looking at Obama’s presidency differently than we do now. It’s why State and DOJ are fighting so hard to prevent document release – they might be Trump’s departments now, but they’re populated by Obama’s people.

Godwin, I thought you were a Ayn Rand capitalist? “Big fish eat little fish, and the little guys are getting muscled out of the picture.” Unless society makes and enforces regulations that protects small business, this is what happens. Why are acting like what you called a big government socialist?

@39 Roger Rabbit gets under your skin and your attempt of a slur is calling him a woman or maybe that was a homophobic attempt. Is that attitude typical of all republicans? Is that an example of the compassion you were complaining you were not getting?

And from there go to what’s missing from her philosophy. Using an analogy, a philosopher argues that entrepreneurship may be like watering a plant, but water alone is not enough to make a plant thrive, you also need soil and sunlight:

Her worldview is basically juvenile and immature in nature: “Most people read Rand when they are young and are deeply moved by her, only to outgrow her by mid-life. …: Her ideology of self-actualization speaks much more to the concerns of the young than the mature—again, because she ignores the ‘other-interested’ side of human nature.”

I could go on, by why bother trying to educate people who lack critical thinking skills, or reject the notion of critical thinking altogether? That’s who Randians are – people who never grew up, and can’t cope in a grownup world.

Unless society makes and enforces regulations that protects small business, this is what happens.

You’re kidding, right?

Read the piece – it’s pretty interesting.

It was the effect of the legislation – or at least the way it’s been carried out – to decrease the cost of product, so that the taxes on it wouldn’t be so noticeable.

As far as government is concerned, Mission Accomplished. You can get a marijuana product all over the place, the taxes are substantial, and the price per gram is about a fourth of what it was when the law was passed.

It’s collateral damage that the little guy was hurt, certainly, but it wasn’t society that caused it. It was government.

As for me, I don’t give a shit – not in this case. If people want to waste their disposable income on weed, I’m no more interested in telling them they can’t than I am in telling them they can’t drink sugary soda or smoke Marlboros. I’m just glad that there’s no evidence that I’m aware of that people are getting killed due to others who choose to toke and drive. That was my big fear. Happy to admit it apparently was unfounded, at least so far.

Now, about that 20% spirits tax…

‘splain me why Jefferson’s Reserve should be taxed more heavily than Jim Beam.

@38 Looking at the events of this year, and market P/Es and those of many individual stocks, I think you should assume that a significant portion of future growth and earnings were pulled forward into 2017, which suggests 2018 should be a much flatter year for stocks, although if the fruits of corporate tax cuts flow into buybacks and dividend increases, instead of capital investment and wage raises, that should help sustain current valuations. A “Black Swan” market event seems improbable, given that stocks ignored geopolitical headlines all this year. The only advice I have for momentum chasers is that energy appears to offer the best value plays and crude pricing should continue to firm up throughout 2018 due to the impact of several years of weak capital spending on the supply side, along with a continued willingness of OPEC to maintain modest production cuts. So I would be buying, or at least holding, oil-related stocks instead of selling them right now; and there should be some further incremental recovery in 2018 for those already invested in that sector. Apple and Boeing won’t replicate their 2017 performances in 2018, but will do all right, and are not “sells” at this time, except I would consider taking profit on some Boeing shares in portfolios where that issue has become overweighted. Continued monetary policy normalization by the Fed shouldn’t be much of an issue next year, but the potential appearance of inflation could confuse investors who’ve become accustomed to operating in an inherently deflationary environment. Rising bond yields could put upward pressure on stock yields and corresponding downward pressure on stock prices, although I expect 2018 outcomes to be net-positive for stock investors. Overall, I believe holding high-quality dividend-growth stocks and compounding gains by reinvesting the dividends, and maintaining well-balanced portfolio and sector diversification (except I don’t like utilities, REITs, or MLPs at all), is a choice strategy for the next 12 months.

You can find the information you’re looking for, Doc, if you pull your head out of Alex Jones long enough. Even Fox and Breitbart are frontpaging the Iran story, although I wouldn’t call those outlets information sources.

@50 “If people want to waste their disposable income on weed, I’m no more interested in telling them they can’t than I am in telling them they can’t drink sugary soda or smoke Marlboros.”

The Randians will agree with you – until they get run over by a driver impaired by drugs or alcohol, and need someone to pay their emergency room bills, because they refused to buy insurance for the same reason they refuse to wear seatbelts. Same deal with smoking and obesity – it’s all about personal freedom until they have medical bills they can’t pay. That’s when transfer payments and transference in general, aka socialism, starts looking a lot better to them.

@52 Nobody’s making you do anything. Do whatever the fuck you want with your money. You can buy horse feed with it, for all I care. Btw, how much did you invest with Bernie Madoff? Just curious, that’s all.

@56 I once posted on a blog that had 10,000 Republicans and one Democrat. I used “The Democrat” as my screen name to make sure nobody had any trouble identifying which poster was the Democrat. That particular blog decided to ban political commenting altogether when the death threats against me got out of control. I guess they didn’t want to be held liable if someone hunted me down and shot me, as some of those Republicans were threatening to do.

That’s my resume. What brave thing have YOU done online, besides volunteering to be a punching bag on HA? Which isn’t all that hard, because nobody here is threatening to kill you or do anything else to you beyond some creative name-calling.

If you ever meet Goldy in person, ask him how it feels to get reported to the police as a child molester and have a load of manure dumped in his driveway. I would posit he’s at least as brave as you, and I won’t dispute that he’s braver than me. I didn’t take on Tim Eyman by promoting an initiative to have Eyman declared a “horse’s ass” in state law, and I never went on live radio to argue with Grover Norquist in person, either. What have you done for your country and local community besides pass gas on HA?

It appears for the interim, Amtrak Cascades will be going back to the old schedule, as there is no margin for error with equipment availability right now. One train back at the TALGO facility in Milwaukee, and the other one a total loss.

Also, next month, Florida’s Brightline begins initial service between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, and then Miami within three months, and eventually phase 2 to Orlando. I hope this one succeeds, especially since it is a private venture.

PuddyCommentary: So now we know at least four classified documents were on the Weiner machine. They were labeled classified from creation. Don’t you all remember the HA DUMMOCRETINS here dancing on the pinhead spewing BULLSHITTIUM from #CrookedHillary campaign staph when the #CrookedHillary team insisted that anything not marked classified wasn’t really classified? Depends on the definition of IS is! YES you do. If forgotten just ask the clueless crazed databaze deala! It’s all there is the sucky blog no one reads. Why not HA DUMMOCETINS? Great place to “refresh memories” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now we see they weren’t just on the secret “unknown” bathroom server… they showed up on Carlos Danger’s private laptop, completely outside of the reach of the US government FOIA requests! Wasn’t that a cozy arrangement the #CrookedHillary team created?

Isn’t that called gross negligence with CLASSIFIED materials HA DUMMOCRETINS? Well, now we know Peter Strzok, #CrookedHillary FBI plant #3, was “hard at work” changing that specific wording from gross negligence to extreme carelessness. And that’s what the FBI Director James Comey said July 2016. So Huma Abedin was extremely careless! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Such BULLSHITTIUM we now know!

Butt we were told otherwise by Abedin and Mills per their FBI testimony! Try to remember FACTS HA DUMMOCRETINS! If PuddyMemory is accurate (which it usually is), both Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills were called in by the FBI (along with their lawyers and no notes were taken) and they told them that they didn’t even know about the existence of the “unknown” bathroom secret server. Puddy posted that BULLSHITTIUM. Ask the clueless crazed databaze deala. That FACT was delivered to the crazed databaze in 2016. Well we know the senile idiot wabbit has memory issues!

So from this Judicial Watch post we NOW have the evidential knowledge from 2010 where Huma Abedin was forwarding classified documents from that “unknown” secret bathroom server to an account called “Anthony Campaign”. This is the same email account on her husband’s (Carlos Danger) laptop along with the DUMMOCRETIN porn the FBI found. So doesn’t that mean that Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills lied to the FBI during their “so called” probe of the case?

YES Puddy it does!

It seems to Puddy that Puddy has been reading about a lot dopey HA DUMMOCRETIN lying to the FBI commentary from the standard DOPES of HA DUMMOCRETINS! The Oregon moron hillbilly has been leading the charge because the senile idiot wabbit is no longer useful. Don Joe (Whom Puddy thinks is the alter ego of Friday Night Comix Perfessa) has been mixing it up trying to resurrect the mind of the senile idiot wabbit and has been piling on this Russian collusion crapola.

We lately read about how Republican people who lie to the FBI are in a lot of trouble and could face jail time, even if the subject of the conversation they lied about wasn’t illegal. In this Judicial Watch instance above we’re talking about a clearly illegal act butt again, alas, they are DUMMOCRETINS. So specifically sending obviously marked classified State Department documents to a private laptop controlled by someone without a security clearance and then deflecting the conversation about it isn’t really lying when you lie to #CrookedHillary FBI plants. Just extreme carelessness!

Soooooooooooooooooo, if lying to the FBI is REALLY such a big deal that the libtard press falls all over themselves about it, aren’t the FBI being a bit selective in prosecution if some DUMMOCRETIN body isn’t indicted over this Robert Mueller? Hmmm…?

Roypublicans must be conspiring with the Derp State against themselves. Everyone running every investigation is a devout Roypublican. And everyone preaching Derp State is alt-wrong.
It’s JBS versus the Trumpnzees in a battle of wits!
Score: nil – nil

79,
My favorite part was this comment from Fuckface’s “lawyer”:“Out of respect for the Special Counsel and his process, we are not commenting on matters such as this, other than to scream BENGHAAAZIII!!!!”

Gee, the Intelligence services discovered some seriously suspicious activity through their normal, standard channels, reported it to the appropriate Court, got warrants, followed procedure and actually found evidence of highly egregious Felonies, and the FBI and DOJ have expressed their intention of prosecuting those crimes to the fullest extent of the Law.

How is this a problem?

It isn’t those Democrats being investigated here, dumbass. Papadopolous plead GUILTY, remember? That means they had him dead to rights on a lot of shit, outside of what he was actually charged with. They probably have enough to put him away for 40 years.

1. “Hillary was guilty of causing Benghazi while using Vince Foster’s corpse as a distraction from UraniumGate!”
2. “What? Hillary was cleared of any wrongdoing despite being ‘prosecuted’ by partisan hacks like Trey Gowdy? He must really be a secret Liberal to let her get away with that!”
3. “All that just proves is how guilty and evil she is! Look at what she got away with!”

Not if they used a FAKE report paid by DUMMOCRETINS vomit producing dead toad! This is why the FBI isn’t producing the requested information asked for by Congress! And if Andrew McCabeis sooooooooooooo clean why is he leaving? Hmmm…?

Notice the freak CONFUSES Friday and Saturday! It loves being STUPID about this.

IT’S DOCUMENTED that the freak has put HA HEROES FIRST on fridays after sunset… IT puts HA HEROES FIRST AHEAD of the commandments of the skydaddy..

ITS DOCUMENTED that the freak has put HA HEROES FIRST on the Saturdays after sunset…(IT IS DOING THIS NOW!) IT puts HA HEROES FIRST AHEAD of the weekly obligation to labor in the salt mines with its salt mining buddy!

Have you had a stroke or something? Seriously man. You need help. You’re so desperate to believe your own lies that you can’t keep your stories straight.

I am not going to go into detail about what is wrong about that post. You just do not have the basic intelligence necessary to absorb the information. You’re so desperate to lie about shit, you cannot understand why people won’t listen to you so you keep frenetically typing and typing like your blather has any substance to it. You don’t even make a basic attempt to sound rational about things when you post. You’re a little kid who keeps being smacked for throwing mudballs at the adults, then start throwing dog turds to get your revenge for that.

People don’t like it when you throw dog turds at them. It makes them cross, especially when the individual doing the throwing has some serious mental health issues and misdirected cogitation.

You’re not the craziest individual I’ve ever seen, but boy howdy, you do give the Trolls a run for their money.

How many times does the world need to see that Puddy PWNS the clueless crazed databaze deala @93? Almost every post is about Puddy. In almost every post it clings to the PuddyPantsLeg like a little child holds onto daddy when it senses fear. A sick little FOOL with no guidance from other libtards. Meandering in the flow with little or no mental capacity to deal with real topics so it repeats itself over and over and over. Puddy called it re-run. Well it still fits!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sad and so typical. It keeps a clock of Puddy’s time along with the shitstain underwear racetrack steve. Every Friday and Saturday one will find the clueless crazed databaze deala making time references. Every Friday and Saturday shitstain underwear racetrack steve is there with it. You’d think shitstain underwear racetrack steve would demonstrate a little more common sense. Butt, alas, that is not the case. When you hang with gutter dwellers you are one!

Does it discuss the libtard politics of hate? NOPE. It’s focused on Puddy and what Puddy does.
Does a real “hero” focus on its “enemy” that much? NOPE! A hero makes sense of itself. The clueless crazed databaze deala doesn’t make any sense whatsoever!

Post #1 – Who paid for the Christopher Steele dossier? When you figger that out return to the boxing arena. Even the NY Slimes finally admitted the TRUTH! Hint… It wasn’t any Republicans you moron! So if it is fake then the FISA warrants used from the dossier are questionable. Why is the FBI stonewalling the congressional committees? Why has Adam Schiff stopped talking? Why did your favrit site Talking Points Memo in their special beta site tell the world that Mueller is using the Steele dossier as his investigation basis. Puddy left the link for you to read before Christmas. Did you miss it? Well you can contact the clueless crazed databaze deala for a replay. It has all the needed PuddyMissives because as we all know the crazed databaze was created to track Puddy! It has never refuted Puddy’s assertion about the crazed databaze. So grow a set of marbuls and ax for that needed replay! It seems no one want to admit reading that sucky blog. Must be the stench sticks to you after a quick visit! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The Russia indictments/convictions could be overturned like the Andrew Weissman indictments/convictions against Enron leaders. Mueller hired the same FOOL as his chief prosecutor!

Post #2 – So you went to a DUMMOCRETIN site and scarfed up some posts eh? You are so predictable. A Google search will tell Puddy which site because you are tooooooooooooooooooo stoooooooooooooooopid to change sentence structure. You copy and paste direct from the source. And we all know the sites you visit because, you, being the moron you are in real life, never ventures out of your comfort zone. Butt, alas there are other things in life that need immediate attention hence why Puddy is up so early today! Puddy has other bidness on New Years Eve. The wife wants a bigger party so off Puddy goes to round up the additional party stuff. What will you do sitting at the apartment with your thumb up yo ASS on New Years Eve vomit producer? Eh?

Puddy can visit the DUmmies site and regurgitate useless leftist swill usually left by the hapless hanging human teabag licker. It is as predictable as you are!

@88 It’s a problem because CNN isn’t shouting “Down with Khameini!” loud enough. Because CNN is, er, a news organization and their job is, um, to report news not make news. This is too complicated for the babbling loon to dope out.

And then there was the word change in Comey’s statement about #CrookedHillary’s handling of State Department emails. “Grossly negligent” became “extremely careless”, a finding that changed an assessment with legal ramifications to one that could have been used to describe the #CrookedHillary 2016 campaign in general.

Hey, remember that chick almost nobody really likes, who was nearly indicted for dishonesty during Whitewater and then handled classified State Department documents like she was reading the National Enquirer while taking a dump?

It seems CNN’s publication yesterday of an FBI application for a search warrant related to ex-Sheriff David Clarke’s official abuse of an airline passenger in retaliation for looking askance at his Dallas Cowboys fan gear has provoked a tweetstorm against CNN by a man who obviously is deranged.

Let’s start with the picture. I can’t post graphical material in the HA comment threads, so you’ll have to click on the link — which, as far as I know, is safe and virus-free — and see for yourself. The picture speaks for itself.

Moving on, Clarke tweets that he’s going to make the “liberal” media “taste their own blood,” and then says, “You come at me, libs you better bring a hard hat … because … I’m going to smack you around until you crawl ….”

and then tweets again about “punching” the “lib” media.

Whattaya think, Doc, is it possible that a nationally prominent conservative who boasts about hating “libs” going around inciting violence against “liberals” might provoke an obscure liberal poster on an obscure liberal blog to post a mostly tongue-in-cheek comment that “liberals must arm”? You know, to defend ourselves against crazy conservatives who openly talk about “civil war,” putting liberals in “concentration camps,” and “executing” liberals? Just maybe?

Or, more to the point, should David Clarke be kicked off Twitter before Roger Rabbit is kicked off HorsesAss.org, or the other way around?

If you don’t want me talking like that, then tell your conservative friends to stop talking about me and my liberal friends like that. When they stop, I’ll stop, but they have to stop first because they started it.

Until then, go fuck yourself. If you don’t like that, complain to Goldy. It’s his blog and he can enforce any rules he wants to.

To be real honest, I don’t ordinarily dream, either day or night, about disturbed people who never, ever should be allowed to have guns (that’s strictly a Republican thing) shooting their families, the cops, and themselves, usually in that order. But I can see how someone with a sick, twisted mind like yours would spend his Sunday mornings fantasizing about such things. You should go to church more.

@121 I’ve never understood how conservatives can love cops and the Bundys at the same time, given that the Bundys made their chops by pointing guns at cops. I guess it’s not that hard when you’re inherently irrational to begin with. After all, illogic doesn’t require all that much computing power.

@124 the distinction is Bundy Klan pointed guns at Federal Law Enforcement. The Cops Bob only cares about are the local police force, specifically his own local police force, because it keeps the boogie man away from him.

Now don’t get me wrong – I really shouldn’t have to say this – I respect Cops very highly. I’ve bought NYC police officers lunch and coffee. But when any Cop (or even my own Mother) abuses their power and commits an unjust act that’s where it stops. Everyone is accountable. Just being a Veteran doesn’t make a Veteran a hero.

But that Federal Law enforcement officer – he is a bad boy for being part of the big government in conservatives eyes.

They don’t care about law enforcement – it is regulation. They only care about the boogie man that lurks them.

@120 careful Bob – it can be pretty embarrassing for your family to find out that you are fucking and blowing a horse…..and it will be really embarrassing when they find out that you like it more when the horse is fucking you.

Interesting that conservatives’ two favorite sheriffs both have pathological personalities, histories of abusing inmates, have been investigated by federal authorities for official misconduct, and were run out of office by the press and/or voters.

Yes, because in America, people will still like a man who’s a rich white asshole even if he is a complete buffoon. People hate the rich white bitch not despite the fact that she’s the smartest person in the room but because she’s the smartest person in the room.

I’d ask you to think on your sins, but that would require you to do something that’s clearly beyond your capacity–to actually think.

124,
Thanks to teevee tropes permanently installed in the enfeebled mind of every free range sov cit “admiralty lawyer”, Roypublican Trumpanzees believe that there is fierce animosity between local LE and federal LE. When they see Bundy supporters pointing sniper rifles at federal LE they see FREEEEDUMB!!!

“Spurlock said the suspect was “familiar” to local law enforcement officials, although he had no criminal history. He used a rifle to carry out an “ambush-type attack” against officers at the Copper Canyon Apartments in Highlands Ranch, a suburb roughly 13 miles south of Denver.”

““The suspect was just making a ton of noise and annoying everyone around him,” Spurlock said.”

“The suspect shared the apartment with a male roommate who was uninjured and is cooperating with authorities. Officers were invited inside the apartment upon their arrival, but gunfire began shortly afterward and lasted nearly two hours.”

“Officers attempted to engage the suspect in a dialogue before fatally shooting him, Spurlock said. Well over 100 rounds were fired during the incident, mainly by the suspect, he said.””

I could be completely wrong. But something tells me White Boy, who knows, maybe even Palin’s Son.

They may not deliver a tax cut to working poors, they may not deliver the border wall to protect hillbillies from rapists on drugs, they may not contain N. Korea, Russia, or China, they may not protect the hillbilly trailer parks from drinking lead and arsenic, they may not protect Medicare and Social Security from tax cuts for billionaires, they may not protect their own daughters from being groped and finger raped by their own elites, they may not be able to protect our election system from tampering by communist dictators, they may not protect workers from being fired for getting injured on the job, they may not create any factory jobs, they may not bring the troops home, they may not simplify tax filing, they may not reduce opiate addiction, and they may not “Make America Great Again”…
but…
Roypublicans sure are doing a damn fine job of keeping an eye on one 70-year-old wealthy retired lady living in a small town off the Hudson River. Keeping us all safe from dreaded pants suits. North Korean ICBMs? Meh. Canceled insurance? Fuck you. Klansmen driving fake muscle cars? Very. Fine. People.

Unfortunately for you Roger senile idiot wabbit is you drink up the FAKE CNN NEWS! Butt you forget the Romanian Hacker Guccifer was shopping #CrookedHillary emailsfrom this article in April! http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....probe.html

Also senile idiot wabbit you forgot that nowhere in the Joint Analysis Report from James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper document construct is anything about George Papadopoulos even hinted or alluded to.

Puddy’s as good a poster bird as any for the squawking parrots of the right. They’re all a bunch of birdbrains who can repeat what they hear, but can’t think, and spend all day shitting from their perch.

@1 is again way off topic, and not what the list or blog exists for. This is for Washington state politics, or at least the Pacific Northwest. If you insist on forcing down my throat something about how the gangs of New York are alive and well, then please put something in your comments saying this has some connection to Washington State. Lie even and say the teenage hooligans hail from Everette, Washington and are a poor example of the wonderful people of Washington state. At lest there is one person on the list who is in New York, still if there is no connection to Washington state don’t fucking post it. I will try to do the same.

Also telling me about some Representative in North Carolina, even if he is the Republican poster boy for a dick is a total waste. I don’t vote in North Carolina. To the best of my knowledge no one on the list is in North Carolina or is in the mans district. He’s probably in a safe seat, unless the Democrats are going with their new proven tactic of make child abuse accusations against the guy, and then wonder why you did not blow him out of the water, but make it sound like some great victory when no such mandate can be made. If anything Doug Jones will govern like a Republican. Vote Republican even. He won’t be able to do anything for the black voters who put him into office which will offer more fuel to the issue of Democrats making promises to minorities, women ect during election time that will be ignored when it comes to actually governing. It’s what they do right here in Washington state. Though a bill may be filed and then die in committee.

The House member I want people to be talking about on this blog is Rick Larson. He is my representative. I have in the past voted for him, but I’m willing to vote for someone else. I think Rick does a pretty good job, but please talk about Rick on here. Call him a SOB. Call him an angel. Talk about our other US and State legislators. That would be talking about Washington State politics rather than most of the off topic stuff on here.

I do reserve the right to respond to anything on the list.

And just to be a jerk I claim copyright on the above and it can only be reposted in full or in part with my permission.

@2 I support an amendment that would increase the size of the house. The current law passed by Congress is unconstitutional, and is just away around Congress doing it’s job.

The situation in Puerto Rico is directly connected to having the number of house seats frozen at 435. Puerto Rico should be a state rather than a second or ever third class step child. Yet it will not become a state because of the frozen state of the house. The house is unresponsive to the voters. Which is anathema to how it’s supposed to operate. It should frankly be impossible to buy the house, while the Senate can be bought. Of course the current situation in the house is to the benefit of both major parties, still states could always pass that old amendment that is on the books, giving us a representative for every 50,000 residents and no state would just have one representative in the house. This would also mean our Presidential elections would be much more competitive. You would see strong regional candidates, and third parties getting some electoral votes. And if the House were properly apportioned as the Constitution states, then the electoral college would have worked properly and Hiliary Clinton would be the President, under that amendment if Congress had to do its job per the constitution after every census and add a number of Representatives as the population goes up. Of course Democrats would not be able to make as much noise over the Trump administrations plan to have census takers question immigrants abut their citizenship status. With a much larger house it would not member. This would also bring the US in line with most western nations who have much smaller populations and much larger lower houses, and then there is China that while it’s show legislature the National Peoples Congress has 2924 members which at least looks more Democratic than our Congress.

@149 PS The Washington state House should also be larger than it currently is. This would ensure a more representative lower house. Whether or not we really need an upper house is debatable, but since that would require a change to the States Constitution, such a change is only slightly less remote than a state income tax.

The House member I want people to be talking about on this blog is Rick Larson. He is my representative. I have in the past voted for him, but I’m willing to vote for someone else. I think Rick does a pretty good job, but please talk about Rick on here. Call him a SOB. Call him an angel. Talk about our other US and State legislators. That would be talking about Washington State politics rather than most of the off topic stuff on here.

So sue me, Shortbus. Really. Get a lawyer on retainer. Have ’em file a John Doe. Then you can subpoena the host and discover my identity.
Or not.
Since your claim to copyright does not provide the protection you think it does. And that’s why we call you Shortbus.

PS: Rick Larson will be very easily re-elected without your vote. So don’t. Please don’t. No really. Anyone with any degree of intelligence unfortunate enough to have read your Wikidrivel comic book preachings is by now confident in your stupidity. Mike Rowe was right. America will be better off without your vote. People as dumb as you should never vote on anything more important than American Idol.

Yes. It turns out that everyone vastly underestimated the number of Americans who still believe that white people are better than back and brown people. No one’s calling for a border wall between the United States and Canada. The only reason that you and Puddy keep dredging up the allegations against a 70 year old woman whose political career is over is to convince yourselves that supporting a guy who ran a campaign based on racism and xenophobia wasn’t a racist thing to do.

That’s the funny part about all of this. You are so deluded as to think that Trump’s victory reflects badly on Democrats. Democrats didn’t nominate Trump. Republicans did. And, that’s the only reason that the election was even close. Had Republicans nominated a decent human being, the race would have been over before the campaign even started.

No one here will dispute your right to be a jerk. We respect your constitutional right to be a jerk. But frankly, I think you’re not smart enough to be a jerk, so maybe you should consider some other activity. Maybe knitting would be right for you.

@159 If you are in Washington state then who is you Representative and what do you think about them? Did you vote for them? Or are you some 14 year old in your moms basement being a stupid shit hiding behind anonymity?

@149 “The situation in Puerto Rico is directly connected to having the number of house seats frozen at 435. Puerto Rico … will not become a state because of the frozen state of the house.”

You probably don’t realize how much you embarrass yourself when you post nonsense like this.

You’re entitled to your opinions, of course, but let’s not pretend there’s anything factual or accurate about this statement. It’s also ridiculously simplistic.

There are many reasons why Puerto Rico isn’t a state. History plays a role, as do substantial language and cultural issues. Money has something to do with it, too.

Possibly one reason the idea has limited popularity in Puerto Rico itself is because Puerto Ricans living in P.R. would have to pay federal income taxes if they became a state.

Another possible reason is that Congress doesn’t want to subsidize P.R. or assume responsibility for its $70 billion debt.

There are political factors in play, too. Ultimately, Puerto Rico statehood is up to Congress, not Puerto Ricans, and Congress can consider anything it wants to. So it’s not easy to pin down why Congress has never made P.R. a state, and the reasons probably change over time.

But let’s look at how the current Congress might view the situation. First, it’s aware that in all 5 plebiscites held to date, statehood has never won the support of a majority of Puerto Rico’s registered voters. Second, Republicans may be reluctant to create two more Senate seats that very likely would be held by Democrats. Third, the issue is controversial, both inside and outside P.R., and it may be easier to just leave things as they are. Fourth, Congress has other priorities and isn’t real interested in grappling with it.

Meanwhile, although P.R. hasn’t been granted statehood, Puerto Ricans were given citizenship decades ago, and any Puerto Rican who wants to enjoy the benefits of living in a state, including voting in elections, can do so simply by moving. No visa is required, there are no immigration quotas, and Trump can’t deport them back to P.R.

@33 Resisting getting in on what could be the next Starbucks from Washington state? Too much risk? Is the potential risk from the unknown as to what the Feds could do, and it’s not really a Democrat or Republican risk thing since Congress is as of yet not on the pot band wagon and legalized it?

You are so deluded as to think that Trump’s victory reflects badly on Democrats. Democrats didn’t nominate Trump. Republicans did.

How are we deluded John Doe? Your party offered the worst candidate evah. Did Republicans tell DUMMOCRETINS to make sure y’all coronated #CrookedHillary? Your party stacked the deck against The Bern. Stacked the deck!

@164 So exactly why isn’t Congress acting on the request for statehood that has been sent from Puerto Rico? It’s happened several times in the past couple of decades that Puerto Rican’s have voted and the majority have said we could like statehood and they submitted the request to Congress that never took it up. The primary reason behind Congress inaction is that it would mean reapportioning seats from multiple states to give Puerto Rico seats in the house. Congress could simply increase the number of seats in the house, but that requires opening that can of worms.

Meanwhile the US has a major embarrassment in the current situation in Puerto Rico. And it’s not a situation created by the current President, but the solutions are either letting Puerto Rico go it’s own way, or become a state.

Of course there is that little island of contentment called Gitmo from the same war that got the US into the colonization game. Maybe Congress should deal with that little situation and do the right thing and return Gitmo. I know Samual Clemens would agree with me.

@45 Except this is not a regular market. First in Washington state you have to get a license to grow, manufacture of sell the pot. You can’t just go out to the north forty and grow some rope, harvest it, set up a stand by the road and sell it. The product is highly taxed, which according to Adam Smith is not something you do to a fledgling industry. In fact government should protect such an industry and have a low tax on it, until it’s established and the invisible hand of the market takes over. In this case the large producers have the state of Washington’s help in making them the winners.

Real competition means legalizing the market in full, and eliminating the black market by allowing those in it to fully participate, and compete in the market.

@30 The creation of micro breweries and now micro distilleries are in in large part due to changes in Federal and State regulation in favor of smaller actors, A market was always there, but you have to be big enough and well funded enough in the past to be able to compete, and it was not possible to make small batches and compete legally, Yes it was always possible to make some bathtub gin and sell it on the side, and ignore the law and not pay the taxes ect, of course many people end up in Federal or State Prison for production and sale of white lightning or bathtub gin.

@172 “So exactly why isn’t Congress acting on the request for statehood that has been sent from Puerto Rico? It’s happened several times in the past couple of decades that Puerto Rican’s have voted and the majority have said we could like statehood and they submitted the request to Congress that never took it up.”

First of all, a majority of Puerto Ricans did NOT vote for statehood in the June 2017 plebiscite. Statehood was supported by less than a quarter of the island’s registered voters in that vote. About 97% of those who voted favored statehood, but the election was boycotted by those opposed.

Secondly, the plebiscite is nonbinding. P.R. statehood is up to Congress, not Puerto Ricans, which makes perfect sense; it’s up to Americans who can decide to be part of America, and Sudanese or Tahitians or Chileans or Australians or whoever can’t vote themselves in.

Third, there’s an established process for a territory to become a state: “‘All 37 [entry] processes have followed the scheme set out way back in 1787 in the Northwest Ordinance,’ says Gorrín. ‘They were all annexed as part of the United States, designated from that moment to become states eventually.’ But Puerto Rico and the current U.S. territories have no such future statehood understanding. When Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were added to the country after the 1898 Treaty of Paris ended the Spanish-American War, their status was as colonial possessions, not as future states.” If Puerto Rico became a statehood, it would do so by a different track than the ones followed by the 13 original states and the 37 later-admitted states.

You might want to consider this, too:

“‘Traditionally, Congress has used three political criteria to decide to finally admit a territory,’ says Gorrín. Those three criteria are the number of people in the territory who want statehood, the embrace of ‘the fundamental values of American democracy’ among the territory’s population, and the territory’s solvency.”

So, you see, there’s more to it than what Puerto Ricans want, and money (i.e. solvency) is part of it. In the final analysis, “the final hurdle to Puerto Rico statehood is the fact that Congress simply doesn’t have to take up the matter at all, even with a referendum in hand,” and as I pointed out, “In today’s political climate, the Republican-dominated body won’t feel any pressure to add an island of millions of likely Democrats to the electorate.”

Or are you some 14 year old in your moms basement being a stupid shit hiding behind anonymity?

First of all, possessive requires an apostrophe. If you don’t understand why that’s relevant to your comment, then kiss my ass. Secondly, if you’re too stupid to figure out that I’m just a tad older than age 14, then there really is no point in trying to engage you in intelligent conversation.

Nevertheless, my Rep is Susan DelBene. She’s voted no on most of the idiotic Republican legislation like HR 1 and HR 10, and has voted in favor of more intelligent legislation such as HR 601 and HR 3364. She’ll likely get reelected for another term, and I have no problem with that.

Do you even know what Rick Larson’s voting record is?

@167

How are we deluded John Doe?

Well, you’ve managed to forget that I’m not a Democrat. That’s pretty delusional. Also, I can think of quite a number of candidates who were way worse than Hillary. In my lifetime, I’d say that the “worst” distinction probably goes to Ross Perot.

And, I’ll remind you that, in the realm of “crooked,” the score remains:

@179 Actually, there’s a 95-minute gap between that post (#36) and my next post (#48), and you also might want to consider that, like Scrooge McDuck, I don’t necessarily count all my sheckels in one sitting. Suffice to say I made more in the stock market this year than I ever made from an annual salary, and the taxes on it will be either nothing or almost nothing.

As I’ve posted many times before, I think this is nuts. People who work, who build and produce things, who make the economy run, should get paid for it. Rabbits who sit on their ass should at least pay as much taxes as the productive elements of our society. I benefit hugely from the system Republicans have created, and I’m about to benefit even more. It isn’t fair, but I’ll take it. I’d be crazy not to.

Even if you’re an ardent believer in capitalism, you should be concerned that the distribution of the economy’s output has flipped, from a majority going to labor, to a majority now going to capital. Some of our top capitalists, including Warren Buffett, have expressed concern about this. They believe it could eventually cause society to unravel like many before have. You can exploit people only so far before they revolt.

Perhaps electing Trump was a revolt of sorts. Trump promised to revitalize the middle class, to bring back lost manufacturing jobs, to cut middle class taxes. None of those promises are being kept. He just signed a tax bill that gives 80% of its benefits to the top 5%, puts the country farther in debt, and his party will now use that debt as an excuse to cut health care, Social Security, and other middle class benefits.

If you vote Republican, that’s what you voted for, and you’re partly to blame. The rest of us saw through this hustle from the beginning. If stupid people like you didn’t, that’s on you, not us.

You keep saying that Roger senile idiot wabbit! And you continue to be wrong. Three of the founding leaders of the tea party are black. They are very alive and kicking. Tim Scott is a senator of South Carolina. He’s alive and kicking.

Even if you’re an ardent believer in capitalism, you should be concerned that the distribution of the economy’s output has flipped, from a majority going to labor, to a majority now going to capital.

Folks possessing a modicum of intelligence might want to read Thomas Piketty. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that the HA denizens who would most benefit from the information would find it way too confusing.

Yes it does, and so did certain states that voted for Obummer did too. It told the world that certain people need to remember every state really does count and skipping some states because DUMMOCRETIN either thought they were in the bag or they didn’t count came back to bie y’all in de ASS!

@154 No self interest in your comment there RR. Right? Though frankly as far as blogs go except for Carl doing open threads and the usual weekly announcements there has not been a lot of blogging on this blog in the past year or years. Seems the only action going on is this. Will horsesass join the fallen blogs of Washington state?

@155 So giving legal advice now? And sorry I will vote. I do not support this concept of safe seats. Gerrymandering for either major is wrong. I happen to like Dick Larson, and will likely vote for him, but he should be challenged and should not be a shoo in even if he is the incumbent and Democratic, That is corrupt and your comments are corrupt, and anti American, and sound a lot like the guys who ran Berlin in about 1936. Are you a closet NAZI after all they are socialists and as much on the left as the right.

And John Doe, How did they “throw” Puddy under the bus? How can you ASSume what they think about when you are white and they are black? You seem to forget Obummer DID throw inner city blacks under the bus by stopping the DEA from interdicting Hezbollah drug deliveries for a $150 Billion payment to Iran for a nuclear deal!

@169 Reading what you say you seem convinced officers from somewhere in Washington went to Wichita and participated, and in any case are equally guilty of any police shootings anywhere in the US rather than their proper jurisdictions aside from a stray bullet flying into Oregon, Idaho or British Columbia. Or is that not what you are saying? Seems you paint all police with the same brush. Even though a very small number discharge a weapon or kill anyone in ant given year. And the police need for them to be armed all the time is highly exaggerated. They need to be armed as much as your average British Bobby, but our culture wins out over rational thought or facts.

Are you a closet NAZI after all they are socialists and as much on the left as the right.

No Mark Adams, he’s a moron and a closet hillbilly from the Klamath Mountains in southern Oregon! He acts like a NAZI on this blog, calling out people like you who are more moderate. A DUMMOCRETIN ASShole who is a real jerk in real life!

I can’t find the post now from RR asking me how many representatives Washington state should have in the statehouse. We ought to have at least 98 in the US house of representatives and each would represent about 78,000 Washingtonians which I think is too many but far better than current reality. I do think state reps should represent about 30,000 people so about 263 representatives would be the idea number. State representation has generally been much more based on geography in the past and only more recently on actual population. I’m ok with Ellensburg having as much power as Seattle as long as the rules of the political game are out in the open.

@184 that is better actually talking about Washington state politics on a blog that exists for that reason. No I did not check Rick Larson’s voting record, but he is a Democrat and on all the bills you mentioned I doubt ant member of Washington state caucus voted differently, while all the members of the Republican caucus voted exactly opposite. Did you research this and find a representative voted otherwise? Perhaps Rick Larson? Are you suggesting fellow Democrat Rick Larson is rocking the boat?

And, I’ll remind you that, in the realm of “elected,” the score remains

That’s true, and I can think of no more scathing indictment of Americans than the outcome of that election. Why do you hate Americans so much?

@199

How did they “throw” Puddy under the bus?

Republicans have:

Effectively repealed key features of the Voting Rights Act of 1965;

Gerrymandered voting districts to dilute the political power of minority voters; and

Reneged on the DoJ’s responsibility to protect the civil rights of citizens, particularly with respect to police violations of the 4 Amendment to the constitution.

That’s just to name a few. Regarding Trump’s accomplishments, Adam Serwer summed it up rather nicely:

Nearly a year into his presidency, Trump has reneged or faltered on many of his biggest campaign promises—on renegotiating nafta, punishing China, and replacing the Affordable Care Act with something that preserves all its popular provisions but with none of its drawbacks. But his commitment to endorsing state violence to remake the country into something resembling an idealized past has not wavered.

As for “Project Cassandra,” you are, as usual, relying on a rather infertile imagination to fill in gaps where we don’t have all the facts. If one of our allies had been running an intelligence operation against Hezbollah, letting the DEA pursue their case would have had a lot of very negative consequences. But, you don’t think of these broader issues, because you’re more interested in partisan hackery than you are interested in getting at the truth.

We can keep playing this “Democrats bad/Republicans worse” game that you insist on playing. I don’t know why you do, though, because you keep getting your ass kicked every time we play it. That’s why I generally don’t play it any more. Kicking your ass is not, and never has been, a challenge.

@183 So no road side stand like you can have for lemons or cucumbers? No license, but none needed for cucumbers and lemons and no need to prove you are a good citizen not that many participants in the legal pot were not pot dealers who did not get caught, and went legit? At least after the end of prohibition anyone could get into the market.

that is better actually talking about Washington state politics on a blog that exists for that reason

Actually, this bog exists for whatever reasons Goldy, Darryl and Carl want it to exist. That does include politics in general, not just Washington state politics. Indeed, the post that put this blog on the map was Goldy’s exposé on Michael Brown’s lack of qualifications to head FEMA.

Moreover, open threads, of which the FNME is one, people are allowed to comment on whatever the hell they want. You can choose not to read the comments if you wish. That’s entirely up to you.

No I did not check Rick Larson’s voting record

Let me get this straight. You want people here to talk about Rick Larson, but you don’t care to make the effort to look up his voting record? SMH.

but he is a Democrat and on all the bills you mentioned I doubt ant member of Washington state caucus voted differently, while all the members of the Republican caucus voted exactly opposite

Um. All of the bills I listed, HR 1, HR 10, HR 601 and HR 3364, were passed in Congress. Clearly, the Republican caucus didn’t vote the opposite on the latter two.

So, rather than become informed enough to have an intelligent conversation on the subjects that interest you, you’d rather ask other people whether or not they’re 14 years old banging on a computer in their mother’s basement. Might I be so bold as to suggest that you make your own effort a little less underwhelming?

@196 Only morons think that’s good for America. At least you can deny responsibility, because fortunately for you, you live in a state where people more intelligent than you ensured your vote didn’t matter.

@200 I never said Washington cops were involved in the Wichita incident. That’s you talking. All I said was we’re going to have a chance to vote for better police accountability here in Washington and I’m going to vote for it. I disagree with you that our police don’t “need to be armed all the time.” It’s nice that British police kill only 1 or 2 people a year, on average, compared to over 100 a month in the U.S., on average, but Britain has gun control whereas America has more guns than people and no restraints on who can get them, thanks to idiotic Republican gun policies that put rapid-firing military weapons in the hands of nutjobs who shouldn’t be trusted with a squirtgun.

@202 “State representation has generally been much more based on geography in the past and only more recently on actual population.”

“More recently” means since 1962, when SCOTUS issued its decision in Baker v. Carr; subsequent decisions solidified the “one man, one vote” rule. The ONLY exception to this is the U.S. Senate. State legislative districts MUST be approximately equal in population. Any other scheme is unconstitutional.

This is today’s civics lesson. You should have learned this in 9th grade, if you weren’t sleeping in class.

@202 “I’m ok with Ellensburg having as much power as Seattle as long as the rules of the political game are out in the open.”

Explain why the 20,000 people living in Ellensburg should have equal say with the 700,000 people living in Seattle in running our state. What’s your rationale or justification for that? Never mind that it’s unconstitutional, and would never survive a court challenge, just tell us why you think the vote of a person in Ellensburg should count 35 times as much as the vote of a person in Seattle.

I was asking a foundational question. Now I’m certain that he knows it’s possible to look up the voting record of a Congressional Representative, I’m curious to see if he can figure out how. It’s good to know just how much of a mental midget this guy is.

@222

“You hang out with Republicans?”

No. The people I hang out with fall, at least for tonight, into the stupidly drunk category. The drunkenly stupid folks are the trolls here.

Police have identified the Colorado cop killer as Mathew Riehl, 37, an Iraq veteran and 2010 graduate of the University of Wyoming Law School who had a law practice in Rawlins, Wyoming. He had no rap sheet but was “known to police” throughout the Denver area, and had declared himself a Libertarian candidate for sheriff of Douglas County, a populous area between Denver and Colorado Spring.

Sounds like a person who probably had mental issues being able to get a “rifle” capable of firing over 100 rounds in a couple minutes is part of the problem here. Weapons of war have no place in civilian society.

@224 “It’s good to know just how much of a mental midget this guy is.”

He never researches or fact-checks before posting. There are no links to sources in his comments, which are full of factual errors, and he doesn’t appear to use sources. He seems to just peel his thoughts off the wall and post them. There’s no intellectual rigor at work. He’s typically ignorant about the topics he posts about. His “work” on this blog, if you want to call it that, is a muddled mishmash of misinformed musings. Thus, “mental midget” is apropos.

197,
Shortbus, I want you to try to sue me for copyright infr. Really. I think the effort would do you a lot of good. I’m saying this for you, liddle buddy. Somehow, some way you need to be shaken out of your idiotic teevee induced fantasies about rights and power. You’re a fucking fool, and a victim. Maybe a shocking humiliation will turn your whole sad miserable life around. None of us here will ever know. Nor do we need to know. But you might really benefit by having at least a few of the shockingly stupid and simplistic assumptions that inform your lonely existence debunked. It’s very easy to see what a tool you are. It isn’t just people like Trump, or Dino Rossi who “utilize” you. You are the kind of dupe who gets routinely deflowered by cheap matchstick men in bars and hustling Uber drivers. Make a resolution tonight to fight back for once. Maybe you’ll bump up against the real world just enough to see at least how much you don’t really understand. That might help you stay safely out of the middle depths of the big scary pool.

I wasn’t specifically thinking about voter ID laws. Voter suppression encompasses problems with voter registration, early voting and the number of available precincts as well. The ACLU’s web site is loaded with information on the subject, including facts that show how supposedly “free” voter IDs aren’t exactly free.

Gerrymandering districts…

I didn’t talk about gerrymandering in general. I spoke of gerrymandering that’s specifically designed to “dilute the political power of minority voters.” North Carolina is a recent example of this.

But isn’t it strange most of these issues are in libtard controlled areas.

First of all, the mayor of Ferguson Missouri is a Republican.

And, no, it’s not at all surprising. America being a free country, we generally allow conservatives to live and work in areas where the majority of the population tends to be liberal. It also means that people are free to hold racist attitudes, which is why we often find documentation of racist attitudes in various police departments.

Without the assistance of the DoJ, local and state political leaders have little hope of reigning in police departments that are rife with racism. Police departments themselves wield considerable amounts of political power. Only the DoJ remains outside the reach of their clout. Which is why the DoJ’s abdication of their responsibility under the Trump Administration is such a vile policy change.

On all. three issues, voter suppression, gerrymandering and the DoJ, you have failed to respond to the points I actually raised. That effectively concedes the argument. I thank you for playing, but, really, kicking your ass is just too damn easy.

Apparently, Roy Moore had a huge support base in the PizzaGate believers.Liz Crokin seems to be a predominant voice in making some rather tenuous connections between Crissy Teigen being annoyed by an 8-hour flight to nowhere, PizzaGate and the HollyWood sex scandal because she posted a pic of her kid dressed up in a hotdog outfit.

Yes and if you looked at the county demographic where the county police are from it is a DUMMOMCRETIN county. The DA on the case was DUMMOCRETIN too. So a Republican mayor in a DUMMOCRETIN county is like a brow rice grain among white rice kernels.

A 2012 Washington Post poll found that 65 percent of blacks support voter ID laws.
A 2014 Fox News poll found that 55 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of blacks support voter ID laws.
A 2015 Rasmussen poll found that 58 percent of Democrats support voter ID laws.

A 2012 Washington Post poll found that 65 percent of blacks support voter ID laws.
A 2014 Fox News poll found that 55 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of blacks support voter ID laws.
A 2015 Rasmussen poll found that 58 percent of Democrats support voter ID laws.

So another Obummer era SCUM, Daniel Love, was fired over illegal malfeasance (acts Roger senile idiot wabbit likes) by acting as a SCUMmy DUMMOCRETIN through Love’s overreaching, corrupt, and often criminal misconduct and ethics violations before the Bundy trial. http://dailycaller.com/2017/12.....ndy-trial/

On September 18, Rob Bishop, Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said this about Daniel Love’s firing: “The previous administration turned a blind eye to corruption and promoted a culture of mismanagement at the Department of the Interior. I applaud Interior for taking a strong stand and reasserting the basic principle that there are consequences for federal employees who blatantly disregard the law and steamroll elected officials and public trust. Love’s exit is welcome.”

OMG…. If the Obummer sadministration acted ethically they may have had Bundy dead to rights? Nooooooooooooooooo! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

#CrookedHillary had no earthly idea that Bill was gonna meet with Loretta Lynch in Phoenix.

#CrookedHillary had no earthly idea that Huma was gonna email herself documents market classified so they could be printed out at home, using the laptop she shared with a careless pedophile, so that she could bring printed copies for #CrookedHillary to read.

Yes another libtard city where police were accused by the mayor and her henchwoman and the city is losing its brightest black minds to DUMMOCRETIN actions!

Cheer on Roger senile idiot wabbit! Libtard cities have the worst cops and also the worst criminals and some of the best minds wasted to crime! Yet we never see Roger senile idiot wabbit talk about the crime!

Sad and so typical. Hey shitstain underwear racetrack stain steve… It’s from NPR well known DUMMOCRETIN leftists so its gotta be hate, right you FOOL?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No random caps lock here! No basement conspiracies projected here. Just TRUTHS about shitstain steve and its exploding head every time specific double posts happen! Nuthin was mentioned when the hapless hanging human tea bag licker gave a double post either!

The Chrome-challenged loon has as many double posts and head explosions as Doctor Dumbfuck has pro-Putin hashtags. And at the rate Doctor Dumbfuck is going, he’ll easily top 5,000 before the end of January. SAD!

That is priceless coming from a pedo-pimp Roypublican supporter of child molesting finger rapists and violent white supremacists who has engaged in every unhinged, ridiculous, bizarre, and unsupportable clownspiracy claim ever put forth. It’s the basis of his Derp State daily routine to distract from the multiple criminal conspiracies with foreign espionage agents.

It’s clear that period of tech-driven rapid growth is coming to an end. In the most recent quarter, BEA reports, California’s GDP growth ranked a meager 35th in the nation; just last year the state’s growth was twice the national average and among the highest in the nation.

Two factors are driving this turnabout — the fading of Silicon Valley’s boom and a hyper-inflated real estate market.

Nice hijack John Doe. You’re almost as good as Roger senile idioto wabbit with that misdirectional TRAIN WRECK! Except that’s NOT the whole Puddy sentence. If the DOJ needed to interferevene, then they should look at who led the city and how the city was being legally covered. Two FOOLS in high places are the main reason this outcome has occurred. Butt then again you are one of those who wants a federal police force, just like Nazi Germany’s Ordnungspolizei! Yeah that’s right up your alley dude! Today they call them the Bundespolizei!

And yet you claim to erudite in your blog posts. The fallacy of division? Apparently you forgot Cuyahoga County, Ohio, or Stafford Virginia or the meaning of IF; all brought to you by Roger senile idiot wabbit. There are many more of his “examples” you skip over! SO why is that? The fallacy of division is strong in Roger senile idiot wabbit!

The fallacy of division? Almost every big DUMMOCRETIN city controlled by libtards has police issues.

Above you reminded everyone you are not a DUMMOCRETIN [Democrat]! Well we know you are not a Republican. So are you a Libertarian? If so, then you are worthless in the eyes of many HA DUMMOCRETINS here! Roger senile idiot wabbit really “loves” libertarians. .NOT. Since you detested Ross Perot you must be one of those special case politicos! Sadly you are another libtard EPIC FAYLE!

@269. From godwin’s link:
This doesn’t seem to be an unbiased source.
The first couple of paragraphs:
“Propped up by media idolatry, California is moving from denial to delusion. Case in point: […] the state “flush with cash from an expanding economy” would consider spending an additional billion dollars on health care for the undocumented, as well as a raft of new subsidies for housing and the working poor.
All this wishful thinking and noble intentions ignores a slowing state economy, and a structural deficit, keyed largely to state worker pensions, that may now be headed towards a trillion dollars.”

The writer seems pissed that the government might be spending money on undeserving brown people and poor people. and unions and retired people. Why do republicans hate the poor so much?

Here’s another view, not from a greedy republican viewpoint.http://www.latimes.com/politic.....story.html
“On the spending side, Democrats are calling for expanding the state’s earned-income tax credit for the working poor. Ting also urged restoration of cost-of-living increases for the aged, blind and disabled. And he said the state could afford to spend more on California’s middle-class scholarship program. Democrats also have hopes to fully implement a new law offering first-time students a free year of community college.

That same law also requires estimates for revenues and expenses three years into the future. Critics may still believe the state spends too much, but budget negotiations now routinely involve a look at what’s over the horizon. That wasn’t always the case over the last decade.(When republicans were in charge)

There also are what budget writers call “off-ramps” built into some of the most pricey policy efforts,.. If economic conditions deteriorate and money gets tight, the law says the governor can pause some of those future increases.”

Seems that the democrats in charge are being fiscally wiser, even if they are spending the money on the those undesirable brown people. I can see why godwin hates it.

It will be interesting to see if the greedy sadistic federal tax cuts cripple the California economy. It was designed to.

Godwin, seems like the Governor of California has more financial sense than the republicans in Congress

“Brown habitually warns about the inevitability of recession and the need to build reserves, and Taylor mirrors that caution in urging his bosses in the Legislature to set aside more money.”http://www.fresnobee.com/news/.....24584.html

I read a trumper’s feed on facebook when I want to a window into their world. It’s amazing how much projection he reposts. It’s as if he posts enough memes it will make it true
“I did not have any sex with underage sex slaves on Mr Epstien’s island on the 26 occasions I was there.”
“Mueller is wasting 7 million on a witch hunt, when should be investigating the REAL corrupt criminals…Hillary and Obama”
“But if we cut your taxes, who will pay for our sex crimes?”
“Congress was intended to be servants of the people, not rulers of a kingdom.” – Pics of Schumer , Pelosi and McConnell
“When 6 corporations own every single newspaper, radio and & TV station, it’s all fake news”
“I’m donald trump, I”m fighting for ALL Americans”
“Arguing with a liberal is like debating with a monkey, no matter how researched or rational your augment is, the money will just poop at everyone and strut around like it won.”
“Happiness is pissing off a liberal”
“Silly Americans, laws are for poor people”

@243 There’s a project for you, Doc. As you’re the only Republican in America who can spell “to” and “too” correctly, you should set up a tutoring service for your less gifted pals; this would keep both you and them busy and out of mischief.

However, I agree that cops who steal evidence, delete emails, and use their position for personal advantage shouldn’t be cops. On the other hand, Love’s misbehavior doesn’t make the Bundys innocent victims. At best, they deserve each other.

P.S., I didn’t know BLM agents are political appointees, or that POTUS appoints them; when did that start?

I often wonder if he ever actually reads some of the things he links to. I’ve long since been convinced that he just clicks on the first “conservative” website that pops up in his googellations of whatever subject he thinks he’s arguing about. It is also apparent that much of the shit that is linked to is just pure conjectural conspiracy theory bullshit written by and for the foil-hat and handgun-under-the-pillow crowd. It’s pretty much all about out-jonesing the Jonsers with everyone in the chain adding their own embellishments to the story.

It’s how Religion works. It’s all bullshit, and every so often someone comes up with a new angle on the original story and retells it. It’s just a giant game of “Telephone”, where one person whispers in the next persons ear, and that person then leans over to the next guy and whispers in his ear, and so on. After eight or ten iterations of that, the original story has ceased to exist entirely.

I’d guess for roughly the same psychological reasons that caused slaveowners to hate their slaves. In fact, it’s difficult to even distinguish the relationship between Republicans and the poor from that of slaveowners to slaves.

Yeah commiereformed, Jerry Brown’s “austere” budgets are being fought tooth and nail by the Legislative Branch DUMMOCRETINS. https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2017-01-10/governor-pitches-1225b-california-budget-warns-of-deficit Oh yeah these are the same DUMMOCRETIN FOOLS embroiled in some sex scandals. So Puddy agrees with commiereformed to a point. DUMMOCRETINS in the US Congress want to spend spend spend! That’s correct. When has a DUMMOCRETIN ever suggested reduced spending besides Jerry Brown who saw the tax collection projections down by $1.6 Billion in 2017?

—- Democratic legislative leaders gave Brown’s budget a tepid reception. Acknowledging the need for caution in the face of federal uncertainty, they nonetheless rejected Brown’s proposed cuts to college scholarships and child care while insisting they will still push to increase spending on social welfare programs. —-

Maybe the whole 2nd headquarters thing is just Jeff’s way to keep Washington State politicians in line. Does seem very CIAish if true. Maybe he’s learning from the CIA. Is this good for Washington state?

@224 Actually I’m not going to bother as you clearly are making assumptions which make you an ass. Which is fitting for horses ass. I believe you mistakenly believe my Congressional representative is a Republican. He is not. And it’s very unlikely he voted differently than the Democratic caucus. Maybe on a bill, but he is probably in lockstep with the other Democrats. I would like to see him be more a maverick. Still it’s another 10 months before the congressional elections. Will the Republicans or independents even run against him? Without knowing who that person is looking up my representatives voting record is a total waste of my time at this point. You are welcome to do so, but you are a partisan, heck you may work in your Congressional representatives office since you came up with your talking points very quickly. And for your information if I think that I won’t bother Goldie, but I will write your bosses office and at least try to get you busted. Now you want to dance. lets dance, and oh out of fairness you should actually use your actual name, chickenshit.

Aren’t we all? I’m a Democratic party hack and liberal propagandist. What are you, a freelance troll? I can’t visualize you working for anybody, certainly not the Russians. They have standards.

“you should actually use your actual name, chickenshit”

Do you? “Mark Adams” looks like a pseudonym. But if that’s your real name, then you should post as “Shortbus” so your employer can’t find you. You don’t want your boss to know how stupid you are, do you?

“I will write your bosses office and at least try to get you busted”

The legal term for this is “tortious interference with an employment relationship.” I recommend having a good lawyer lined up and a large personal liability insurance policy in place before proceeding down this path.

@221 And RR I might just want you to think I’m a mental midget and I may be thrilled you are putting that out for me. Think a little more Machiavellian. Or actually do your homework, sit down with me for coffee, or beer and actually figure out if I’m a mental midget. While at times you have said things that make me question your statements you are or have been an attorney who worked either in the city or county prosecutors office I do give you a bit of an out as you may have just internalized to a great degree what prosecutors have to; to be successful in the job, many are not great attorneys, and there is always a political element to the job, as they have to keep the voters happy to keep the themselves or the boss in office, and even if the boss is replaced by the voters the daily grind remains. Perhaps there is good reason behind Cicero telling his son to not always be on the prosecutorial side of arguments, and court cases. Occassionally you say dumb things, but that does not mean think you are dumb or stupid person, just human,. which is a very liberal idea. And the backbone of democracy. Perhaps you are too entrenched in your partisanship to come back out into the light of the public square, and have a beer or coffee. Perhaps you are scared to actually do diligence?

@301 Perhaps I should be horseasses crown Jester. Lot of power in being the fool. Of course this is only a position that the owner Goldie can infer upon me. Oh noble Goldie if you see fit to put this hat upon me please let me know! I will learn the Mandolin and sign praises of you as minstrels of the past. (Please disregard any depictions of minstrels from Monty Python as those are clearly too truthful for our youth of today.)

It if your blog Goldie and I would be honored to be your jester of 2018. (I can think of a rabbit for the honor in 2019.)

@301 “Of course this is only a position that the owner Goldie can infer upon me.”

That’s not true. You can be anything you like on HA. For example, I chose to be a rabbit. Goldy didn’t make me a rabbit; I made myself a rabbit. If the role of HA jester suits you, nobody’s stopping you from wearing that mantle. For you, it’s not much of a segue.

Btw, the word you want here is “confer,” not “infer.” You don’t “infer” something on someone, although you may “infer” something about someone. “Infer” is a deductive reasoning process; “confer” is a bestowing process.

@209 Still my inferring you maybe an adolescent in his moms basement has drawn you into the public square. You have not actually put anything down actually proving that you are not. Even 14 year olds are able to look up the voting records of politicians on the internet, or the official US government site. There was a time it was not so easy, but even 14 year olds were capable of doing it then.

Are you inferring there is some difference in my representatives voting record compared to your Washington state representative, and there is some other Democrats concerned he is rocking the boat here in Washington? He is not Democratic enough for you is the only thing I can attribute your current antics to.

Assuming you are not working in your representatives office then have you contacted your persons office and what did you think of the experience? Do Republicans who contact her office feel fairly treated and that their concerns were at least addressed, even if the response was a negative one. Were their concerns directly answered, or was the classic political two step used? Or are you merely a partisan in support of any Democrat running on the ticket, and you always vote a straight ticket. And are only slightly embarrassed by the former State Auditor being found guilty in Federal Court last week.

I’m honored. I’ve been nominated many times on this blog to be the principal ingredient of a rabbit stew, but I’ve never been nominated to be the HA jester before. Thanks. Dressing up in a clown suit is better than being thrown into a pot of boiling water.

@213 I suggest counsel you pull your head out of your ass then and look up and review the bars ethics rules. Even if you are fully retired, you should know the rules of ethics on advice and who can give it in Washington state. Such statements occassionally make me wonder about your claims. A bar number would substantiate your statements, and presumable a real attorney would not make the claim you did unless they knew the other individual is a member of the Washington BAR or Oregon Bar if so please provide that individuals bar number.
An ethical attorney would provide the requested information, even one who is retired.

@215 The police in Britain have never carried firearms, they did not carry before any alleged gun control was done in Britain, and gun control is more about class. There are plenty of firearms in Britain, particularly rural Britain. The culture is different which is why even you are on here saying our cops should always be armed. Even on desk duty? Doing parking tickets? Is there a level duty they don’t need a firearm or are you culturally acclimated that cops are to be armed, you can’t think of why they should normally be unarmed. Which is a shame because you boo hoo police shootings as horrible events, while not seeing that an officer with a bully club might have been the proper amount of force for the situation, or the officer maybe forced to use his head or common sense and call for assistance, and then arm themselves if such weapon is available in the vehicles trunk or when back up arrives. Of course we Americans are always in a hurry, time is money, ect. for such questions of life and death.

@305 “And are only slightly embarrassed by the former State Auditor being found guilty in Federal Court last week.”

The embarrassment is strictly his.

Kelley served several terms as a state representative before he won a competitive three-way primary for the Democratic nomination for state auditor in 2012, then defeated a less experienced Republican opponent in the general election by a fairly close margin (53%-47%).

That resume probably impressed many voters, undoubtedly more than it would have if he had added, “Also, I got rich by embezzling money from my clients.” He did NOT tell voters that; you can see for yourself here:

The Democratic Party, and individual Democratic office holders including Gov. Inslee, did NOT support this guy when it became known that he was a crook.

Contrast that with Doc Hasting’s record as the House ethics chairman, or the GOP’s defense of Trump and Roy Moore, etc., etc., etc.

One of the many differences between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats don’t make excuses for, or cover up for, or tolerate the ethical misdeeds of their own. When their members commit ethical lapses, they put the public good above their partisan interests. I wish I could say the same for Republicans, but I can’t; the GOP’s track record in this regard sucks.

@215 I look forward to voting for or against the proposal. I’m not going to hold my breath as I expect there will be attempts to block the proposal (happened with Goldie’s, but the stakes are different), and if passed by the voters it will be challenged in the courts at least twice. The first time immediately after the vote in hopes the courts will prevent implementation. Should it survive that then when it’s first used against a police officer, though there maybe some amount of shopping for the best case to challenge the law.

I’m not holding my breath. I’m willing to consider the unintended consequences of the effort, question whether removing the legislature from doing its job is really the best solution to the issues. This is why our legislators are there after all.

@309 Feel free to ask WSBA whether it’s ethical for an attorney licensed in Washington to express his opinion on a public blog where everyone including him is posting anonymously that another poster he believes to be an attorney probably is not offering you legal advice unless you’ve signed a representation agreement with him/her. This information will get you started:

Of course creating the political behemoths such as Seattle was an unintended consequence of the courts decision. And the reasoning underlying the decision was about race, and not the rural and urban divide. It was a decision on an issue that were a much smaller divide in Washington state than others. Would Washington state on its own have implemented the crux of the decision on its own, or would politics in the state be more equal geographically? With Vancouver, Ellensburg, Spokane, Bellingham on a more equal footing with Seattle? And some votes in all these rural area being wasted, and is that really a bad thing? Is it only race that makes those wasted votes bad? Or it was not such a bad thing in Washington state in SCOTUS view, but race made the one man one vote of ultimate political power that Washington states rights as a state should be constitutionally subverted? Which is what happened, although not innocent of racial bias Washington does not have the same history as Alabama, Indiana or New York. It is different here as much of the racial hatred is against Asians and Native Americans historically. Blacks and Hispanics being extremely small minorities in a largely WASP population.

Setting aside Northern Ireland, which has always been an exception because of the civil strife there, and where all British police officers are armed, “In the rest of the United Kingdom, the majority of police officers do not carry firearms; that duty is instead carried out by specially-trained firearms officers.”

Wikipedia gives the number of these officers as follows:

“In relation to specialist firearms officers, in the year 2011–12, there were 6,756 Authorised Firearms Officers, [and] 12,550 police operations in which firearms were authorised throughout England and Wales …. ”

@310 ” … you are on here saying our cops should always be armed. Even on desk duty? Doing parking tickets? Is there a level duty they don’t need a firearm or are you culturally acclimated that cops are to be armed, you can’t think of why they should normally be unarmed.”

You’re reading too much into what I said. Don’t overthink the situation. Let common sense be your guide.

“Which is a shame because you boo hoo police shootings as horrible events”

No, only police shootings that appear to be unnecessary and/or unjustified. I’ve never claimed that all police shootings are inappropriate. For example, based on what’s been reported about this weekend’s Colorado incident, the cops clearly had to use deadly force and were justified in doing so.

” … then arm themselves if such weapon is available in the vehicles trunk or when back up arrives”

@312 “I expect there will be attempts to block the proposal (happened with Goldie’s, but the stakes are different)”

Goldy’s initiative was a stunt. God forbid we should live in a country or state where it’s possible to enact a statute declaring a specific person to be a “horse’s ass” by popular vote. Even he didn’t expect it to actually be voted on.

It’s possible there could be a legal challenge to I-490. It has enough signatures, but it’s conceivable a drafting flaw or some other legal consideration could keep it off the ballot. I have no opinion on that at this time, Right now my gut sense is I-490 would survive a legality challenge, but we’ll see.

@219 As you have pointed out prior to 1963 that could be done, Though I don’t think at the time Seattle even as the largest city was demographically as dominant over other areas of the state. The state government has too be representative of all the citizens and all geographic areas. One cannot expect 350,000 to move to other areas of the state bringing things into a more even keel, but it could happen naturally. Another political solution, which is also unlikely is splitting the stat up into multiple states with state governments more representative of their regions. This is a problem to many western states. Not likely to happen, but there is a lot of resentment over the 900 pound gorilla Seattle has become and how that warps things. Seattle and King county do not exist for the rest of the state to bow to and supplicate to. As communities Bellingham, Everette, Spokane, Ellensburg are equal to Seattle and should not be shut out, yet they are sometimes due to interests of those in Seattle. Seattle is not the breadth and entirety of the State, and would continue without the resources it receives from these areas. Should the tide turn and Seattle loses population politicians representing Seattle should bear in mine pay back is a bitch, and pay back will be taken, it is human nature. Still nothing to worry about today for todays elite in Seattle and western Washington, just there is that thing called change.

@312 ” [I] … question whether removing the legislature from doing its job is really the best solution to the issues. This is why our legislators are there after all.”

Goldy shares your antipathy to citizen initiatives. However, our state constitution has authorized them since 1912, and if you and Goldy want to get rid of them, you’ll have to change the state constitution or at least change the statutes to make it much tougher to qualify for the ballot.

@311 Which just goes to show that neither party has a way to keep the bad apples out. Neither do a comprehensive background check on their candidates before or after an individual announces they are running and identify with a party. Such background checks are expensive and it can be argued could be anti democratic. They could be used to party elites to keep qualified citizens from running. Also I think it could be argued that the voters sometimes like to vote in crooks. As they maybe a crook but they are our crook. Sometimes it takes a crooked man or woman who has walked a crooked mile to be the leader that is needed.

@303 Certainly I’m willing to meet at some neutral location. Hopefully one that servers coffee or something and is of relatively good cheer. My work schedule rather sucks, and we can air out any misconceptions we have about each other. Or be proven correct. And yes I would attend one of the weekly sessions on Tuesdays if I was not working Tuesday evenings.

So it turns out the Colorado cop-killer is the loon’s Obama-hating, Breitbart-loving, white nationalist kindred spirit. It figures.

“Forbes writer J.J. MacNab discovered Riehl’s Facebook page, in which he identifies himself as “Matt Gonzo,” and where he has posted multiple memes featuring Pepe the Frog, the cartoon that has been appropriated as a symbol for white nationalists.”

“Other of Riehl’s Facebook posts include calling former President Barack Obama a “lying piece of sh*t” and shared posts from alt-right website Breitbart News.”

@315 Interestingly, Baker v. Carr, the first case to articulate the “one man, one vote” doctrine, was viewed as a contest between underrepresented urban constituencies and overrepresented rural constituencies, and some contemporary scholars argued the case “had nothing to do with racial discrimination”; but a recent law review note by a Notre Dame law student (now a corporate attorney with a global law firm) contended that focusing on the “the representative imbalance between urban and rural areas … is overly narrow” and overlooks the fact that when “the Court was deliberating over Baker, malapportionment regularly entailed racially discriminatory effects[.]”

Question of race and urban vs. rural aside, “one man, one vote” is the law of the land, and the makeup of Washington’s legislature reflects the distribution of population in the state. King County has about a third of Washington’s total population, and three counties — King, Pierce, and Snohomish — have over half of all Washington residents. Eastern Washington has two-thirds of the state’s land area but only a fifth of its population; two-thirds of the state’s population live in counties bordering Puget Sound. Under these circumstances, it’s unrealistic and unreasonable to argue that the rural counties — most of which are east of the Cascades — should have majority control of the legislature. Such a districting scheme would be blatantly unconstitutional and would be thrown out by the courts.

@229 Apparently you missed the part where I stated I was being a jerk. Should have been a clue to you I was jerking your chain. I did so successfully. I don’t see where you reposted anything, but you don’t have my permission to do so.
Who owns posts on a list like this is not a settled question of law. Though it could be argued Goldie owns them all, though looking at the bottom he claims copy right for everything on here, but specifically not what is said in the comments. Smart man.
And yes I do know I would have to probably actually sue you and all that if I were to make a legal issue of it. Of course you are hiding behind your identity behind a mask thinking you can say anything on here and not get your balls in a bind. You could live by your own words and enter the public square as yourself. Do you fear your own self censure if you were to do so? Or the censure of others?

@319 “there is a lot of resentment over the 900 pound gorilla Seattle has become”

Fuck ’em. As far as I’m concerned, they can stop taking our money any time they choose. If eastern Washington wants to be a separate state, then let ’em pay for their own roads and schools.

I’ve traveled in eastern Washington often enough to hear people over that griping about “supporting Seattle.” I don’t know whether that’s tongue-in-cheek or they actually believe that. I suspect the latter. In which case I would ask them, “Do you people really believe that your nice paved state highways and county roads are paid for by the gas taxes of people living in houses spaced a quarter mile apart? Do you think four families pay enough gas taxes to pave a mile of highway?” And what about all those fleets of school buses that gather up kids from miles around and transport them to and from school every day? Who’s paying for that? Not their property taxes.

King County is the only one of Washington’s 39 counties that exports gas taxes to other counties, to the tune of over $125 million a year. Pierce County breaks even. The other 37 counties are all net recipients of transportation dollars, i.e., more money is spent in their counties than their residents pay in gas taxes.

The fact is, the Puget Sound metro area is subsidizing the rest of the state, and has been for many years. The situation is parallel to “blue” states subsidizing “red” states. The red states, and in our state the red counties, excel at being ingrates. To hear them tell it, we’re “takers” and they’re “givers,” when in fact it’s markedly the other way around.

If they want to secede and form their own country or a separate state, then as I said, let ’em go and support themselves. I don’t begrudge them their schools and roads, but I’m tired of listening to their whining that Seattle is stealing from them.

In a state like ours where candidates are nominated in primaries, the parties have little control over who the candidates are. It’s the voters’ responsibility to keep the bad apples out.

It’s one thing for someone like Troy Kelley to get elected by voters who didn’t know he was embezzling from his business. It’s something else for votes to elect someone like Trump despite what was known about him before the election and the things he said during the campaign. Kelley voters can be forgiven for that ignorance because they didn’t know and had no way of knowing. Trump voters have no excuse. They knew what he was and voted for him anyway.

@322 I was thinking of Drinking Liberally sometime. They probably can do coffee. I usually opt for 7-Up; I don’t drink at all when I have to drive. Goldy may or may not show up; Darryl usually is there.

They meet at a tavern in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. It’s not real convenient — since moving to that location several years ago, I’ve gone there only once — but if you’re serious and that works for you, we probably can work out a date there.

I once met Puddy in person, not at DL, but at a gathering at Seattle Jew’s private residence. It was just an introduction, but he was quite pleasant and there was none of his online gibberish in our very brief conversation. The online Puddy is an act. So is the online Roger Rabbit; I’m not really a rabbit, or if I am, I have a strikingly human-like physical appearance in person.

@325 “Of course you are hiding behind your identity behind a mask thinking you can say anything on here and not get your balls in a bind.”

That’s not why we post anonymously. There are crazy people out there. Especially in today’s superheated political environment, it’s unsafe to expose yourself and your family to retaliation if you make a hobby of online political commentary. Even having a bumper sticker on your car might be asking for trouble.

I see you’re getting into the swing of things around here. What did you think the rest of us are doing? The HA comment threads are an outhouse, and pulling the flush chain is what we do in here. This is a society of intellectuals, but not an intellectual society, if you get my drift.

@235 City, county and state officials and politician generally are unable, unwilling, and do not have the cajones to go after just regular every day type corruption in Sheriff and police departments. Often it takes Federal involvement whether intentional or unintentional for just corruption to be dealt with, so why is anyone surprised there maybe racist cops, And there probably are whole police and Sheriff departments where the entire force should be fired, not likely to happen for a number of reasons. Imagine Seattle with the entire Police Department fired and told not to show up, and it will be weeks or months before the force is reconstituted and King County is handling the city. Maybe not be as bad as I’m imagining, but it could be worse than my imagination. We may want police who are not racist, ect, but that is not the real world. Real solutions and real politics happen in the real world, not in the SCA world of politics as we imagine they should be. There are limits to Plato’s cave and he never came up with a better solution than democracy in some form. His idea of philosopher kings was up against the real Earth and real human beings.

@328 I can take a Tuesday off from work. It will be few weeks, and I probably won’t drink anything either as I agree with you on that whole drinking and driving concept does not work well. They do have some parking, but I take from some comments on here it’s not a lot of parking for a really big crowd?

@335 It will be a few weeks for me, too. Right now I’m out of circulation with a winter bug. The one time I went there, I didn’t have any trouble finding street parking. It’s a small tavern and the DL crowd usually is about six people. Finding it is the main problem, unless you have one of those GPS gadgets that leads you to it. The street layout there isn’t the easiest to navigate.

But, for those interested in what’s actually going on in Baltimore, the police department has a long history of abuse and excessive use of force. Between 2011 and 2014, Baltimore paid nearly $6 million to settle complaints regarding excessive use of force. It would likely have been more were it not for the fact that municipal liability is limited to $200K per incident.

Since the killing of Freddy Gray, civic leaders have made a concerted effort to hold police officers personally accountable for their misconduct. In response, police officers have effectively implemented a work slowdown. The problem isn’t civic leadership. The problem is the police culture.

The basic point about police culture can be gleaned from the link Puddy posted at 248.

Actually I’m not going to bother as you clearly are making assumptions which make you an ass.

You’re not going to bother…what? Looking up your Rep’s voting record? And you’re not going to do so, because you think that I’m making assumptions? SMFH.

You made an assumption about my Rep’s voting record. You said you assume that she and Republicans always vote opposite each other, and I pointed to some facts which prove that assumption to be false.

I made no assumptions whatsoever about your Rep’s voting record. I have no interest in your Rep’s voting record, because he’s not my Representative.

The rest of your comment is mostly churlish name-calling. Not that you’re wrong on the chickenshit thing. Unlike you, I have a rather unusual name and a significant internet presence. My vanity search turns up five hits on the first page. Given just my name, it’s really easy to figure out where I live. If that makes me a a chickenshit, then I’m more than happy to assume the label. At least I get to sleep at night.

But, you’re mostly wrong on just about everything else.

@305

@209 Still my inferring you maybe an adolescent in his moms basement has drawn you into the public square.

No, it hasn’t. My first response to you was @159. Your reply to that comment is where you made your inference about my age. You also asked me some questions, which I answered politely and completely. I gave you those answers despite your inference, not because of it.

For the record, my mother is dead. At the time she died, she was living in a condo that I bought for her. It didn’t have a basement.

Are you inferring there is some difference in my representatives voting record compared to your Washington state representative, and there is some other Democrats concerned he is rocking the boat here in Washington?

No. Let me repeat this for you, because you appear to have difficulty comprehending something the first time someone says it. I don’t care about your Rep’s voting record. He’s not my Representative. I can neither vote for nor against him. That’s your responsibility, and, while I’d appreciate it if you chose to be more informed about his record, there really isn’t anything more I can do about it except shame you into doing something about your ignorance.

Surprise me. Stop making excuses for being deliberately ignorant. Become informed. Do your job as a citizen.

Assuming you are not working in your representatives office then have you contacted your persons office and what did you think of the experience?

Yes I have, and I have no complaints. You could have inferred this answer from the statement I made earlier to the effect that I expect her to get reelected to another term, and I would have no qualms with that result.

Do Republicans who contact her office feel fairly treated and that their concerns were at least addressed, even if the response was a negative one. Were their concerns directly answered, or was the classic political two step used?

I have no idea. Ask a Republican. I’m generally not interested in the opinions of Republicans. See below for an explantation as to why.

Or are you merely a partisan in support of any Democrat running on the ticket, and you always vote a straight ticket.

I’m an indépendant voter who believes that the Republican Party has become so ideologically rigid that it’s lost it’s soul. I’d seriously consider voting for a reasonable Republican if I ever had the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, at the present, “reasonable Republican” is an oxymoron. The Republican Party has essentially kicked all the reasonable people out.

And are only slightly embarrassed by the former State Auditor being found guilty in Federal Court last week.

I’m not embarrassed at all. Not sure why you think I should be. I’m not a Democrat.

@340 Reading your comments on here so you work in that Representatives office? That appears to be what you are saying. Am I misreading that or do you work for the Congressperson? From the looks of your statement I have to write a letter now. I think if Goldie sees he may take umbrage with you if you are working in her office. Maybe he will only raise an eyebrow or maybe more.

I think the thin blue line is doing this to protect its own. Sure he sure be charged for making a false report, but beyond that is simply too far, it says more about the militarization of the police and tactics if people can use the police in this way as a prank or to get rid of rivals.

Finding this guy guilty of murder or manslaughter would go against the public interest in if some one is killed by police because of you making a 911 you can be charged (if you are in Kansas).

@331 It’s America and we have always had crazy people. Most of the founders were crazy people, especially if you asked King George yet they all wrote their names on the Declaration of Independence knowing doing so would get them hung if caught by the Kings men, so I find your excuse week tea. To make a difference you have to stand up as a real human being, a real person with foibles or greatness and most likely both.

@326 Apple orchards, dams, wheat fields have their place and benefit King county residents. and some of them like you use them to go other places in the state so you enjoy the benefit of your tax dollars even there. There is a rural and urban divide in Washington state and one thing more rural residents are the taxes they pay, since they are more likely to own property. And there is the regressive nature of our tax structure that means someone who drives for a living maybe paying far more in gas taxes that what RR pays in total taxes, and that is rather unfair, but this person could easily just be a renter in King county and not really be fully aware of all the taxes he or she pays indirectly.

First of all, now your argument has changed. First, you said that they made a difference because they signed their names to a document. Now you’re saying that they did more than just sign their names to a document.

Secondly, your revised argument isn’t any better. According to your reasoning, I could pay for someone’s college tuition, but it would only make a difference if the person knew that I paid for it.

Poor Puddy. He can’t help simply repeating the same facts over and over again, because he has no clue that the facts he’s citing don’t support the conclusion he wants to reach. Indeed, it’s likely he doesn’t even remember what conclusion he’s trying to reach. Puddy’s brain has a clear dysfunction by which facts go in and bullshit comes out.

Sohn and one of the film’s stars, Lt. Col. Melvin Russell, who heads the Baltimore Police Department’s Community Collaboration Unit, stopped by “Salon Talks” to discuss the impact of documenting a city on edge in real time. The conversation quickly turned to Trump’s law and order agenda advocating police aggression.

Trump’s rhetoric on police brutality “almost, almost gives a stamp of approval on that deep rooted police culture,” Russell said. Sohn pointed to the militarization of police as well. “I think the real danger is that law enforcement in this country is now being woven into the military,” she said. “Law enforcement is actually in community with our folks and there should be a difference.”

John Doe doesn’t get it because he’s too dense to comprehend it. It has nothing to do with any right wing echo chamber. It’s FACT! When you look at police brutality it predominately occurs in DUMMOCRETIN controlled areas. It seems DUMMOCRETINS are loose with the law. Yet there is John Doe claiming Puddy is dysfunctional. It’s another of those libtard TRAIN WRECKS when a libtard can’t refute the facts.

Puddy has not changed the PuddyTune on this subject since Puddy been here on HA DUMMOCRETINS! All one needs to do is ax the clueless crazed databaze cretin for a full review of Puddy and police brutality.

Soooooooooooo John Doe, Obummer made a lasting impression on the police. Obummer was quick to send in Eric The Red Holder to look at Ferguson. Oh wait… The county was DUMMOCRETIN controlled. The prosecutor was DUMMOCRETIN. ANd what was the just us decision John Doe?

Look at Seattle John Doe. Who put Seattle Police on notice? Who runs Seattle John Doe?

Then there is Bill DiBlasio. So much angst with DiBlasio that the police turn their back on him many times last year!

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